Palin claims right to access confidential employee files

[G_j]

http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/322-palin-claims-she-has-right-to-access-confidential-employee-files.html

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is maneuvering to stop an investigation into an alleged abuse of power, in part, by claiming that she has an unlimited right to pry into the personnel records of all state employees, including the state trooper who divorced her sister.

Palin’s new position was summed up in a Sept. 9 letter from Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg to the state legislature, which has authorized an independent counsel probe into whether Palin and her staff illegally accessed confidential personnel records of her ex-brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten.


The probe also focuses on Palin’s firing of state Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan in July after he refused to fire Wooten.


Colberg’s argument is that Palin can access confidential files of any state employee she chooses and thus the allegation that she got unauthorized access to Wooten’s personnel records – by whatever means – is moot.


“It does not violate the State Personnel Act for Department of Administration Staff to provide confidential personnel information to the governor or her staff — or for the governor or her staff to receive that information — in the course and scope of their official duties,” the attorney general wrote.


“The governor or her staff may, in the course and scope of their official duties, review a confidential personnel file to ensure, for example, that an employee is adequately supervised, appropriately evaluated, and appropriately disciplined. In appropriate cases, the governor may also direct the termination of a state employee.
”

This legal analysis appears to be an attempt to provide Palin and her staffers with legal cover for allegedly disseminating confidential information about Wooten in a campaign to get him fired.

..more..

[jayfish]

1. George?

Is that you? Yup they're gonna reform Washington alright. :eyes:

[radfringe]

2. I'll show you mine when you show me yours.... n/t

[mtnsnake]

5. lol

[KansDem]

3. "...illegally accessed confidential personnel records"

That is sooooo pre-W!!!

[Montauk6]

4. Apropos to nothing... or maybe not...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Right_of_Kings

[ihavenobias]

6. K & R, to the greatest

[burythehatchet]

7. She also illegally interefered with processing a workers comp claim

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Even if that is true, didn't a judge order her to leave that trooper alone? n/t

[Vincardog]

9. Yes. And what about giving the information to her Husband?

[ColbertWatcher]

10. I wonder if that's why the husband threatened Trooper Wooten ...

... because the judge barred her from harassing him?

What a mess.

These people can't even play mobsters right.